Cecil’s Timeless Screed on Ball Lightning.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040917.html
And now, we do know.
And knowing is half the…I just can’t say it.
From Bosda’s Physorg link:
“* Furthermore, the plasma glows very brightly, although the plasmoids appear to be rather cold. A sheet of paper placed above them does get lifted, but it does not catch fire.*”
Yow. That’s mighty mysterious. St. Elmo was a happenin’ cat.
it’s just a bunch of ionized gas that takes a split second to reionize. The fact that it’s cold makes sense, seeing as it cannot stay ionized (as opposed to a hot plasma which is ionized precisely because of its heat). It glows brightly because of the reionization process.
can this explain ball lightening?
I don’t know, do you have a good process for why reionization wouldn’t happen during a thunderstorm? (honest question… i don’t know much about it. maybe the air is already depleted of electrons.)
should be:
“(as opposed to a hot plasma which GETS REIONIZED precisely because of its heat)”
ugh, and reionized should be changed to deionized just about everywhere else